Daniel Abraham on History

"Thing about civilization, it’s what keeps people civil. You get rid of one, you can’t count on the other."

"History, Michio believed, was a long series of surprises that seemed inevitable in retrospect."

"The several unexamined assumptions in the argument remained unexamined."

"History is made up of people recovering from the last disaster."

"“Same here, Cap’n,” Amos said. “I got a lot of past in my past."

"History’s made of surprises that seem obvious in retrospect."

"After a certain point, the past becomes irrelevant."

"If they kill us all, Drummer thought, this will be why. Not their technology, not their strategy, not the invisible cycle of history. It’ll be our inability to do anything without five committee meetings to talk about it."

"The question wasn’t whether moving psychoactive alien seedpods between worlds was a good idea so much as whether someone was going to lose face in front of a committee meeting. Thus were the great decisions of history made."

"Evolution was a paste-and-baling-wire process that came up with half-assed solutions like pushing teeth through babies’ gums and menstruation. Survival of the fittest was a technical term that covered a lot more close-enough-is-close-enough than actual design."